When creating cocktails for the blog I like to keep a realistic point of view. What ingredients are reasonable to have on hand/buy, what cocktails are realistic for a 20/30-something-year-old to make. But every so often I want to have a little bit of fun with my blog cocktails. So when my friend Megan asked me to create a cocktail to promote Party Arty I was intrigued. Her only guidance was "something out of the box." I fist glanced at this text and thought there was no way I could deliver. What could I possibly bring to the table that was out of the box? One of my favorite cocktails on this blog includes 2 ingredients and some cherries. But then I remembered a cocktail trend that I love to enjoy: Ice Sphere cocktails.

Curious what Party Arty is? It's a party in Kansas City on Saturday, January 21st. It's a party hosted by the YFA committee associated within the Nelson Atkins Museum. This year's theme is Dadaism thus the "out of the box" cocktail ask.

So I will soon be adding a cocktail to this ice sphere, but I've found that the creating of the ice sphere is in need of its own uninterrupted blog post. I googled and searched Pinterest for how to make an ice sphere. I skimmed the instructions, boiled my water and poured into my sphere ice mold.When I say skim, I truly mean that I took a quick look at a few different pages and thought I knew what I was doing. Flash forward to me trying to use a drill to screw into a solid sphere of ice because I thought that was what I had read to do. No no. That's not at all what one should do.

The process is actually easy, but as with life, it's all about timing. So it's not really a project you can start at 11 PM and then go to sleep for 8 hours.

Step By Step Process

1. Boil your water to get rid of impurities.

2. Let your water cool and then boil a second time.

3. Let your water cool down for safety.

4. Pour the water into your ice sphere mold.

Now is where the tricky timing part comes into play. And it's all depending on your freezer.

5. After an hour and a half check on your ice. What you need to look for is a frozen outside with water on the inside. IF your sphere has frozen at this level the next step is to take something sharp and poke a hole in the top of your sphere. (If your sphere has not frozen on the outside you will want to throw back in the freezer for 30+ minutes.)

6. Once you have punctured the top of your sphere place your sphere back into your freezer upside down.

7. Check back in 1 1/2 hours on the progress.

Again the timing is really the only thing that changes from freezer to freezer. Ideally, you want to have your ice on a grate in your freezer, if you have one, so that the cold air can circle the entire sphere. But if you've done this correctly your ice sphere should look a little like the photos below. Probably with a smaller opening.

Let's get to mixing!

Cheers! I'm Jacque, and welcome to my little world. At Mixplorology we will be going on adventures to create the best cocktails, find our favorite happy hours and explore the world from one coast to the nest. {More}